I was lucky enough to attend the inaugural Lost Village Festival, situated somewhere in the secluded English countryside between Nottingham and Lincoln. This Lost Village Festival Review + Guide should tell you all you need to know! The festival is held pretty much in the woods, with fairy lights illuminating pathways through the trees to get to different parts of the festival grounds.
Camping comes as part of each ticket, and is set in a big open field right next to the grounds. Quite a small festival of only 4500 people, Lost Village is delightfully intimate and friendly. Unlike other large festivals, it was not uncommon to run into people many times throughout the weekend and form friendships through recurring interactions. It was also actually easy to set a meeting point and find friends! They encouraged everyone to form a ‘tribe’ and wear their tribal paints and clothing to the festival, which was a really fun idea for everyone to get into.
Lost Village Festival Review: Venue
The venue at Lost Village was pretty cool. They branded it really well as being in a mysterious woodland, and were mainly successful with this. They had three stages set up through the woods. Two of them were actually set in clearings within the trees, and the one main stage was in more of a field area.
You can walk down dirt pathways through the woods between the three stages and to a few bars and other amenities, but other than the stages there wasn’t too much to be explored inside the venue. There are a few sitting areas, space to hang out, another small events stage (where we took part in some of a reggae dancing class), and a few other fun things to do. But it was really what-you-see-is-what-you-get with this venue. Which is fine, because it is a really small festival, so I think it worked well.
Lost Village Lineup/Music/Artists
The music at Lost Village was pretty much entirely deep and tech house. With headliners of Annie Mac, Jamie Jones, Tale Of Us, and Four Tet, and plenty of other good names and new discoveries, it was definitely a really enjoyable lineup. This type of music is definitely a niche form of electronic music, but it was varied within the niche if that makes sense. From the melodic beats of Kølsch, to the minimal vibes of Erol Alkan, to a live show from Tourist, there were definitely options when it came to what kind of deep house you wanted to see at Lost Village.
Lost Village Crowd
The crowd was great! It was a lot of happy, friendly people having a good time, like every festival really. It was a very northern English crowd, without too much variation. Everyone was so surprised when they heard my accent – I have never gotten asked ‘where are you from?’ more times! So, all in all, the crowd here was mostly English and pretty local. It was an 18+ festival too so the crowd was mainly in their 20’s or 30’s I would say.
Lost Village Vibe
Vibes were all too good at this little forest party! The generally mellow and low-key musical lineup set up for carefree and light vibes throughout the weekend. You could feel the excitement in the air at the campgrounds as everyone set up their belongings, put up their folding chairs, set up their speakers, opened a beer, and began to enjoy their weekend.
Everyone seemed happy and free, enjoying the short departure from life that a festival brings, especially a camping one. There was even a feeling of mystery in the air inside the venue – they had all sorts of decorations and actors around to give a real feeling that you were in a ‘lost village.’ I’ll go into that next!
Lost Village Atmosphere/Decorations
They set up the atmosphere extremely well at Lost Village. The stages were named “The Ruins,” “Forgotten Cabin,” and “Abandoned Chapel,” and they had tons of other features to set up the vibe of being in a lost village or forgotten mysterious settlement. Upon entering the grounds, attendees were able to see ‘missing’ posters tacked to trees, with old photos saying people went missing looking for their husbands or wives in the woods, dated in the 1800’s.
They had actors walking around inside the venue and campgrounds clad in different kinds of eccentric clothing, from animal costumes to old Victorian looking garb with face paint. They have a little area where these actors performed some shows, such as aerial silk acrobatics.
There was a small “magician’s circle” area near the entrance with a circle of tree stumps, each with a different tribal looking design on it. Here a man with mysterious tribal face paint would perform all sorts of different magic tricks. We went and watched him, and I still have absolutely no idea how he did some of his tricks. He literally made a coin disappear from inside my clenched fist somehow; it was impressive and mysterious and he was seriously talented. He related many of his tricks back to the lost village theme as well.
One of my friends had a fully costumed actor come up to him and give him a key with a little clue on it to follow to ‘recover the missing’ of Lost Village. Fairy lights lit up all the pathways and there were beautiful decorations made of silk, sticks, leaves, etc hanging from the trees throughout the venue. All in all, they carried out the theme really really well – 10/10!
Lost Village Festival Review: Camping
Camping, as I said before, came as part of the festival ticket here. As I always say, camping is always the way to go at festivals if you want to make the most of your experience. The camping area at Lost Village was set out in a big open field, and went on a put-your-tent-wherever-you-want basis.
The field was pretty much a perfect size for the amount of people at the festival as it never really seemed too crowded. The camping area is literally right outside the entrance to the festival, and you could go in and out as much as you wanted. It was really easy to head back to the tent to grab a quick snack or drink and go back into the festival quickly.
Boutique camping was also available. Big colorful tents with little cot beds and a few extra amenities were available at an extra cost, and were situated right next to the regular camping.
Camping Amenities at Lost Village
Most of the amenities at the festival were part of the camping area, or the “Basecamp” as it was so called. Amenities here were not the best – the lack thereof was one way that I could really tell that it was the first year of this festival. Although it said on the website that there would be some shower facilities available at a small cost, no one seemed to know where these so called showers were or if there really were any at all.
People didn’t really seem to care for a shower here, but personally I need to have at least one! I ended up nonchalantly walking into the boutique camping section and casually jumping on one of their showers. I got lucky to walk in when no one was watching the gate! I’m sure it would have been possible to pay to use these, but it was really strange that no one knew anything about regular showers.
The boutique camping section also had a phone charging station and a coffee and tea station, but us simpletons were left to pay £5 to have our phones charged in the Basecamp. I brought an extra charger box – definitely a festival essential!
Campers are allowed to arrive on Friday starting at 3pm, and there was a special lineup of DJ’s playing in the Basecamp area as a special pre-party just for campers.
Inside Lost Village Basecamp
Inside the Basecamp they had a popular vintage clothing shop pop-up, which no doubt encouraged people to be creative with their outfits. There was a hair and makeup station in which they could do all sorts of different tribal makeup and hair styles – from braiding to feathers to colors. They charged £10 for a hair-do, which I thought was pretty reasonable. There was also a henna artist in the Basecamp, and plenty of tables to hang out.
They had a small general store in the Basecamp selling things out of what looked like an empty storage box/train car. Options were limited – they had some snacks, basic medications and first aid, packs of Coors, basic drinks and sodas, and toilet paper (of which the port potties didn’t get refilled once all weekend. Not good). Basically, your best bet would be to think ahead and pack enough food and supplies for yourself because you can’t get too much here.
They had one water station for the whole campground, and one in the Basecamp. There were no mirrors or places to brush your teeth or plug in phones or hair accessories. This one water station didn’t seem to get too crowded over the weekend either, somehow, so although limited it still worked out.
Lost Village Transportation/Hotels
Hotel options were also available a short drive from the venue if needed! They do stress the camping option here because it is included in the ticket price, but for those who want it a hotel option was also available.
Shuttle busses run between Newark Northgate and the festival gates at decently regular intervals. It took them a while to get the busses coming regularly, and many people had to wait at the station a while to get on a bus. But I would definitely say that this was just a first year complication – they got the busses coming more regularly later on Friday evening.
There was also parking available at the venue and many people just drove. I would definitely recommend driving if possible to avoid the confusion of waiting for the shuttle bus!
Lost Village Food/Drink
All of the food at the festival was contained in the Basecamp area. They did have a great selection of amazing restaurants – the food at the festival was actually really great quality yummy food. They had The Breakfast Club as one of the caterers, which was something that sold me on the festival honestly. The only problem and another reason I could tell it was their first year was that, although the selection of food was amazing, they only had four or five food stands.
When 4500 people wake up in the morning and want to get some hot food, this leads to insanely long and time-consuming lines. The Breakfast Club also ran out of coffee pretty early and there was nowhere else to get any – a very sad moment for my campmates and I. The food was very reasonably priced too – it cost about as much as it would on the street, without hiking up the prices due to lack of other option. This was something the festival did really well.
There were many bars throughout the Basecamp and inside the venue, some really large. They had a craft beer tent near one of the stages which was really popular and had some great options. They drinks were really, really reasonably priced. With pints and mixed drinks starting as low as £4, you really couldn’t complain paying less than you would at many pubs on the weekend anyway.
Price of Lost Village
If you buy early, the whole weekend can cost as little as £48. If you buy late, it’s £125. Up to you! Either way, it is very affordable.
Lost Village Fashion
At this festival people wore basic warm-ish clothes (to match the weather) with a lot of tribal/boho type accents. It wasn’t the type of festival people attend to make a fashion statement, but many dressed up for fun. There was a lot of face/body paint, jewelry, and tribal patterned clothing to match the festival’s tagline – “Join the Tribe!”
Lost Village Weather
Well, Lost Village IS in England, so that pretty much means you can never be sure about the weather. It was pretty decent when I went, and by decent I mean it only sprinkled a few times. But you should definitely be prepared for rain – your tent has definitely got to be waterproof and some rain gear would be a good idea. The main stage is a tent so you can always go there if it starts to rain!
Lost Village Security
The reason the drinks were so well priced is because they only allowed each person to bring in either 8 cans of beer/cider or a bottle of wine each. One of their reasons for this was that the drinks would be reasonably priced anyway and they they needed to sell drinks to keep ticket prices low, which was fair enough.
That being said, they did not check our bags at all – one guy put his hand on my bag, asked me if I had anything bad inside, and let me through when I said ‘no.’ They had a searching station though and a dog to sniff, although it didn’t look like they searched many people. I basically could have brought in as many drinks as I wanted, although I guess there’s no way of knowing whether they will search you or not.
Time
Music runs from the early afternoon until midnight. Pretty standard 🙂
Lost Village Tips
Be prepared for weather, look out for the games and actors that the festival has, and get to the food trucks early so you don’t have to wait in long lines!! Bring baby wipes for sure, and plenty of food!
SHORT RECAP VIDEO
I made this video after the festival, and decided it was not good enough to share on my page/instagram. So I decided to leave it here in my Lost Village Festival Review instead 🙂
Passionate, full-time travel blogger with over 230k on social media and 150kMPV blog. Extraordinary photographer with two DSLR's + a drone with a love for capturing candid moments, epic drone shots, and magical compositions. I'm a natural-born content creator originally from California, but I've been on the road for 9 years living, working, traveling, blogging, and photographing my way around the world. I recommend the most amazingly adventurous and unique + boutique travel experiences/stays and helpful products to my audience and write comprehensive guides on my website that have helped millions of travelers so far. I love to inspire people to plan their dream trips, and many readers have given feedback as such. The reach on my platforms continues to soar, especially when combining cutting-edge social content with optimized articles on my high-authority website.